


Stars

by terajk



Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-18
Updated: 2011-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-27 12:36:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/295930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terajk/pseuds/terajk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Ranma and Ryoga talk disability. Awkwardly. (Although Ranma cheats.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars

Ryoga lay on the roof of the Tendo dojo looking at stars; it was sort of like going on a journey without actually leaving. He counted them in the direction of a manga page, and had to start over when Ranma stepped over him. When he got to one-hundred-and-fifty, Ranma said, “Akane’d be upset if you got pneumonia or somethin’ and died.”

He looked over at him in his nightshirt (and lost his place again, dammit). “Speak for yourself,” he said.

“No, I mean, it’s gettin’ cold.”

“You’re the one half-naked, you pervert.”

“Ryoga, you jerk,” said Ranma. Then he let him brood in peace.

He thought of Akane, of course, walking past as he sat on top of Ranma and bent his leg all the way back (”Say ‘surrender!’” “Moron!”); rolling her eyes while Ranma jumped up and down on his spine. “Oh, she’s just bein’ a macho chick,” Ranma’d said when he’d asked. “Besides, she’s more mad at you, anyway.”

He’d yanked Ranma’s pigtail then, but it was so obvious now. She said _words_ to Ranma (not sentences, but words), while she greeted him with silence or, on good days, noises like “Mm.” Then there was that time he offered to show Ranma the Steel Dragon Fist, which he’d learned from a zookeeper in Hokkaido, and she slammed the dojo door as she left.

Oh, Akane! How could he have been so thoughtless? (What had he even _done?)_ It would shatter his heart into stardust, but he had to leave her so he didn’t hurt her any more. He had to--

“Freeze to death, then,” said Ranma suddenly.

“What?” said Ryoga.

Ranma sighed. “It’s just....you can’t go wandering around Japan in the dead of winter. It’s stupid.”

“Maybe _you_ can’t,” Ryoga said. “I do it all the time.”

“Because you’re _stupid.”_

“What do you care what I do?”

“Because I don’t want your corpse on my conscience,” said Ranma. “And you already sorta live here. Why even...go wherever you think you’re going?”

“I like it,” Ryoga said.

“You like bein’ lost all the time?”

“No, fool. I...” And then he ran out of words. There were panic and terror and bugs and bears and cold (yes, cold) and exhaustion and not eating for days and loneliness, the crushing loneliness most of all (people gaping in horror when he asked for directions-- _what are you? a tourist attraction, maybe, but you don’t belong here otherwise, with us)._ But there was also the Shishi Hokodan and martial arts gymnastics and everything else he’d learned from teachers on his travels, all the things Ranma was excited to see. There was using so much of his brain to figure out where he was that he couldn’t even feel the loneliness. And there was mastery, too--the Having Finally Found the Damned Place, the doing things on his own. What Ryoga said was, “I...can’t explain.”

After a while, Ranma said, “I mean, it’s not like I go lookin’ for cats on purpose.”

“I suppose not,” was all Ryoga could think to say.

“Akane misses ya when you’re gone.”

“Akane _hates_ me,” Ryoga said.

“She doesn’t hate you, she just...I don’t know what’s wrong with Akane,” said Ranma. He paused. Then: “And you make me have to fight _Kuno,_ and he sucks. Also, his head is shaped funny. I always feel like I’m gonna fall off.”

“You could fight Mousse instead,” Ryoga offered.

“Enh, Shampoo’s better.”

“Fight her, then.”

“She cheats.”

“You would know,” Ryoga said.

“I dunno why you don’t stay at the dojo,” Ranma said. “Akane’s old man doesn’t mind ya. You do the dishes. And it’s not like you’re a bad teacher or nothin’--an asshole, maybe, but not bad.”

“I don’t need your charity,” Ryoga said.

“Weren’t you listenin,’ jackass?” asked Ranma. “Kuno is _annoying_ \--and not in the ‘still sort of okay’ way you are. I’m askin’ this for _me.”_

Ryoga _did _ have sympathy for the awfulness that was Kuno, so he thought. “And what does Akane think?” he asked.

“Didn’t I tell ya? She asks about you all the time when you’re gone. Idiot.”

Ryoga settled back, looked at the sky. _But what if--? _ he thought, but didn’t ask; he couldn’t ask that because this was Ranma and anyway he didn’t think he could put it into words. But he would try. “What if _(you see more of me and make faces and decide I don’t belong with you after all)_ my sense of direction is worse than you think it is?”

Ranma laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed. _“Ryoga,”_ he said, “half your challenge letters tell me to meet you at, like, ‘the blue car by the mailbox’ and I have to write you back just to work out a real place. Then there was that time when we were playin’ baseball and you ran the bases backwards and knocked Mousse over and broke all his glasses and _Shampoo_ was so shocked, to this day she refuses to translate the stuff he called you. And Nabiki still talks about when--”

“All right, all right, you’ve made your point,” Ryoga said.

“It’s not like we care,” Ranma said. “I mean, Ucchan probably does--she never got over the three-legged race thing--but you’re just...however you are.”

“But you make fun of me all the time,” Ryoga said.

“Oh, please,”said Ranma. “You’re the one who keeps tellin’ me to act like a man. Akane always says I’m a dummy. You once asked Mousse how many fingers you were holding up and punched him in the face. And everyone thinks Kuno’s an idiot.”

“Kuno _is_ an idiot,” said Ryoga.

“See?” said Ranma. Then: “Come live with us, Ryoga. If you want.”

And he did. He did want to, very much, but-- “I like to do things myself,” he said. “Can...can I pick a place and have you show me where it is? A place we’d go all the time? Like, the Cat Cafe?”

“Why not? We could challenge Mousse and Shampoo.”

“And by you,” Ryoga said, “I mean you. Not Akane.”

“Of course not,” said Akane suddenly. “No one ever means me.”

“How’d _you_ get up here?” Ranma asked.

“The same way you did, dummy.” Then she said, “What is this? A martial artists’ stargazing convention?”

“Uh,” said Ryoga.

“Because it if is,” Akane said, “I’m sitting here. It’s _my_ family dojo. Move over, Ranma.” Ranma did. When she sat between them she said, “If you’re going to challenge Shampoo, take me with you. _She_ actually fights me, unlike some people I could name.”

They watched the stars together for a while, saying nothing, and even though Akane was angry Ryoga felt...safe. It was strange and scary in itself. And just when he couldn’t stand this new feeling anymore, Ranma said, _“Damn,_ it’s cold out here!”


End file.
